Week 27: Sleeping in is wonderful.

Last week was the beginning of the end of my contract.

Next week is the end of my contract.

That means this week is the middle of the end of my contract?

Either way, here's this week.

SO! Monday was my last day at my Monday school.  We mostly did review, starting at the beginning of the book and showing the kids that they knew it all.  They seemed to really like that.  They made me poster things saying they'll miss me, with a short English message from each of the kids.  (you could tell they had copied the message, but still, cute!)

Tuesday, I got to SLEEP IN!!  YAY!

What? It was awesome.

Anyhow!  I still had work, they just asked that I participate in an English village in the afternoon, so I didn't have to go into the office in the morning.

The English village was interesting!  So, they were holding a bunch at different schools, but us Interac people (there were 5 of us) all went to the same school, and since we were the only ones who really had teaching experience, we were basically in charge of the other helpers.  (volunteers from the nearby college.  Many exchange students from the U.S. too)

Us Interac people got there about 10 minutes before the others, where they filled us in on what our different groups were doing (I was playing a board game, I had read the summary before I came) and the school representative was chatting with our interpreter, I wasn't really listening.  Until they all were staring at me.

"Wait, what?"

"One of the Interac people needs to be an MC.  Will you do it?"

I look at the others, and I'm the only one that doesn't have a big look of "NO WAY" stamped on my face.  Shrug.

"Sure, why not?"

So they told me what we were doing for opening (it was all laid out already, so that was nice) and the rest of the college students came in. At which point the lady in charge says "ok, tell them what we're doing".

I thought to myself 'ok, time to put on your best "I know what's going on" act...'

It went pretty well!  The others seemed pretty calm because I seemed to know what I was doing, and thankfully they didn't expect me to do anything huge.  After all, we were all only teaching a single grade level. :)

Groups of us were in different classrooms, like board game (me), ordering pizza, treasure hunt, dance room (where I wanted to be) and the kids rotated.   After a while of that, it was time to go, we gathered, the lady turned to me and said "Ok, now do a farewell"

.....Thanks. It's REALLY comfy under this bus.

Again, it went pretty well.  I don't think I did FANTASTIC, but then they weren't paying for that. They were paying for pretty good. (if they were paying for fantastic, they woulda had one of my supervisors up there)

And I wasn't allowed to bring my camera, sorry.

Wednesday and Thursday were very nice.  I mostly stayed in and rested.

I mean...I worked hard!  I cleaned and organized my whole room! And I cooked...and I went shopping!  and...yeah, mostly I sat around and enjoyed not having to do anything. :)

My room is small, so cleaning it usually only takes a half hour, but this time I REALLY cleaned it, and re-organized it and put my futons out to air, and so it did take a lot longer than usual, and it really looks nicer now!  Mostly.  The only downside of having a place that doesn't take long to clean, is that it doesn't take long to mess up either.

I went to the movies, saw BBC's Sherlock: the Abominable Bride.  Went shopping and got to see the usual "wait, WHAT?! you find around here."

Like a hugging banana

They also had pigs and stuff

 Or a hat for your cat.

He looks so happy!

Or a new CD!

?!

Or Star wars themed flatware!

I'll admit, these were really tempting.

I didn't get any of it because I've been poor lately, and what with my contract dropping for a month, I'm gonna be REALLY poor NEXT month, if I don't reign it in a bit.

 Friday school was great!  I got to see the sixth graders show their parents their musical prowess!  (remember, Monday school did this a couple weeks ago)  I still wanna know where they find sheet music for "Take Me Home, Country Roads" with accordion accompaniment.

They did so well!

And some of the kids displayed their other music talents, like one kid who could play the shamisen!

the white paddle in their left hand is how they strum.

and they gave me "goodbye" posters too, but they're all in Japanese, so I gotta find someone to translate. :)

Saturday, no festivals were on, so I went to "Harvest Hill" with a friend.  I first found out about it because it said they had "all you can pick strawberries" but when I checked it out, it said you had to have a reservation...and that all reservations were taken for the month of March.  Still, sometimes they accepted walk-on's, and they had other stuff to do there, so we went anyhow.

It was an interesting place.  You know how there's an entire horror section based around little amusement parks that have broken down and are now haunted by the clowns of the past?  Well, it was one of those amusement parks, but it wasn't broken down. :)

Wait, are we in Japan or Germany?

They had archery

But I wasn't too impressed with their arrows.  The fletchings were ALL to pieces.  Still, it was nice to be able to draw a bow again.

They had sledding

wee!

 And big grassy areas for the kids to run around screaming in.

and pony rides

there was a sign that said "80 k" but considering that's 176 lb, I'm not sure it was talking weight limit.

And a sheep based talent show!

there were hoops and steps and stuff on the stage, but it was too dark to take a picture.

That we didn't see, because it turns out my friend is REALLY scared of sheep.  (don't laugh, she has every right)

We did, however enjoy watching the kids react to the dinosaurs moving and roaring.

some screamed, most laughed, many wanted to pet them..

And, hey! Best part!  BUNNIES! (and a llama, for some reason)

They're distant cousins?

And then we PET THEM!

SO SOFT

And the llama. 

Who's a good llama that's trying to eat his post in a bid for freedom?

And we rode a go-cart!

this isn't me.

That I barely fit into.  My friend had to do all the driving as my knees were all tucked up.  Still, it was a LOVELY drive.  But I think it will be even prettier in the spring.

And we almost crashed.

They also had a place where you could stay inside and make crafts!  Like candle things, and paint mugs and stained glass stuff...

And music boxes you could choose the music for and then the things you put on top of it!  You bought each part, so it could quickly become a bit pricey...

I really liked the leather tooling though. :)

You could tool all sorts of different leather pieces.

But by then we were about done.  We hoofed it back to the train station...

But we couldn't find the bus stop for returning.  Well, it was a nice day, so we figured we'd walk. After all, I had the map up on my phone, so we wouldn't get too lost.

Turns out the station was 3 miles away. Still made it with no real problem.  When I got home, I calculated that, with our periodic little rests, we had walked approximately, 5 hours yesterday.

My legs hurt so much.